Why Is the Rig Count Rising ??
Drill Bits: Rig Count Picks Up Again. Why?
Sure, oil prices aren’t anywhere close to last year’s record, but one theme from last summer survives: Drill, baby, drill. (It’s about six minutes in.)
Drilled, baby, drilled.
Baker Hughes is out with its weekly rig count, and for the third time in a row, the number of drilling rigs running in the U.S. is up from the previous week. At 928, the count is now up 5% from its June 12 nadir.
That’s still less than half the 1,921 rigs that were running at this time a year ago (the count eventually peaked at more than 2,000), but the recent increase has led some analysts to speculate that the unprecedented collapse in U.S. drilling activity has begun to reverse.
Gas drilling… after plummeting more than 50% between September and April, the gas rig count has been pretty much flat since May, and even ticked up slightly this week. And some of the hottest gas plays, such as Louisiana’s Haynvesville Shale and the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia, have seen drilling pick up in recent weeks, even as gas prices have continued to fall.
Posted by: C. Keddy
